An essay on Jean-Luc Nancy's 2021 essay 'The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking', which i... more An essay on Jean-Luc Nancy's 2021 essay 'The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking', which is a response to Martin Heidegger's 1964 essay of the same name. It was to be published in the special issue of Philosophy World Democracy entitled 'The Other Beginning of Philosophy'. The essay makes the point that philosophy, even that of Heidegger and Nancy, always involves the positing of the transcendental conditions of things. It concludes by arguing that this is even true of Stanley Cavell's "perfectionism".
You could have woken up in Australia in lockdown on 9 October 2021 to be confronted by a headline... more You could have woken up in Australia in lockdown on 9 October 2021 to be confronted by a headline in the national newspaper The Australian that read 'Believe It or Nor, Donald Trump Looks Likely to be the Next President'. The article that follows begins by making the point that the popularity of the current President Joe Biden has declined markedly since the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a series of domestic policy stumbles. Meanwhile Trump remains the presumptive and uncontested Republican nominee for the next election and his popularity remains the same amongst the Party's base, despite the Capitol Hill riots that took place after he contested the result of the last election. And recent polling suggests that, if a vote between Biden and Trump were held today, Trump would win in a landslide, thus reversing the outcome of the recently held 2020 election.
For serious readers of English literature, the early and mid-career novels of Henry James (Roderi... more For serious readers of English literature, the early and mid-career novels of Henry James (Roderick Hudson, The American, The Portrait of a Lady) are not enough. The ultimate challenge is the later ones (The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl), which are longer, more ornately written and less action-driven. Indeed, for hundreds and hundreds of pages, nothing seems to happen in them and by the end we seem to be back where we started. Of course, we are already used to this from mid-period James. In The American (1877), the Boston millionaire Charles Newman decides not to reveal the de Bellegarde's incriminating family secret, despite them thwarting his marriage to their daughter Claire. In The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Isabel Archer gives up the eligible Caspar Goodwood and inexplicably decides to return to her loveless marriage to the effete and pretentious Gilbert Osmonde and his daughter Pansy. In The Aspern Papers (1880), our nameless narrator decides not to marry the niece of the poet Jeffrey Aspern's recently deceased former lover, even though this would allow him access to his long sought-after papers. And in the three great late novels, to adopt a kind of Jamesian locution, nothing also seems to happen, only more so.
and was intrigued by the subtle "scientific" pressure he wanted to place on Kant's third Critique... more and was intrigued by the subtle "scientific" pressure he wanted to place on Kant's third Critique. And why not? Kant studied the "natural sciences" before becoming a philosopher and the two fields were in much closer contact with each other back then than they are now. Of course, all through the long period of artistic modernism and the taking up of Kant's work by figures like Clement Greenberg, the Critique of the Power of Judgement was used to argue for the specificity of the various art forms and more generally the separation of art from life. Now with the end of modernism and
An essay on Jean-Luc Nancy's 2021 essay 'The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking', which i... more An essay on Jean-Luc Nancy's 2021 essay 'The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking', which is a response to Martin Heidegger's 1964 essay of the same name. It was to be published in the special issue of Philosophy World Democracy entitled 'The Other Beginning of Philosophy'. The essay makes the point that philosophy, even that of Heidegger and Nancy, always involves the positing of the transcendental conditions of things. It concludes by arguing that this is even true of Stanley Cavell's "perfectionism".
You could have woken up in Australia in lockdown on 9 October 2021 to be confronted by a headline... more You could have woken up in Australia in lockdown on 9 October 2021 to be confronted by a headline in the national newspaper The Australian that read 'Believe It or Nor, Donald Trump Looks Likely to be the Next President'. The article that follows begins by making the point that the popularity of the current President Joe Biden has declined markedly since the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a series of domestic policy stumbles. Meanwhile Trump remains the presumptive and uncontested Republican nominee for the next election and his popularity remains the same amongst the Party's base, despite the Capitol Hill riots that took place after he contested the result of the last election. And recent polling suggests that, if a vote between Biden and Trump were held today, Trump would win in a landslide, thus reversing the outcome of the recently held 2020 election.
For serious readers of English literature, the early and mid-career novels of Henry James (Roderi... more For serious readers of English literature, the early and mid-career novels of Henry James (Roderick Hudson, The American, The Portrait of a Lady) are not enough. The ultimate challenge is the later ones (The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl), which are longer, more ornately written and less action-driven. Indeed, for hundreds and hundreds of pages, nothing seems to happen in them and by the end we seem to be back where we started. Of course, we are already used to this from mid-period James. In The American (1877), the Boston millionaire Charles Newman decides not to reveal the de Bellegarde's incriminating family secret, despite them thwarting his marriage to their daughter Claire. In The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Isabel Archer gives up the eligible Caspar Goodwood and inexplicably decides to return to her loveless marriage to the effete and pretentious Gilbert Osmonde and his daughter Pansy. In The Aspern Papers (1880), our nameless narrator decides not to marry the niece of the poet Jeffrey Aspern's recently deceased former lover, even though this would allow him access to his long sought-after papers. And in the three great late novels, to adopt a kind of Jamesian locution, nothing also seems to happen, only more so.
and was intrigued by the subtle "scientific" pressure he wanted to place on Kant's third Critique... more and was intrigued by the subtle "scientific" pressure he wanted to place on Kant's third Critique. And why not? Kant studied the "natural sciences" before becoming a philosopher and the two fields were in much closer contact with each other back then than they are now. Of course, all through the long period of artistic modernism and the taking up of Kant's work by figures like Clement Greenberg, the Critique of the Power of Judgement was used to argue for the specificity of the various art forms and more generally the separation of art from life. Now with the end of modernism and
A commemoration of Indigenous activist and writer Sam Watson and his part in the creation of the ... more A commemoration of Indigenous activist and writer Sam Watson and his part in the creation of the CityCat Project
A review of the National Gallery of Victoria's Andy Warhol Ai Wei Wei exhibition, 11 December 201... more A review of the National Gallery of Victoria's Andy Warhol Ai Wei Wei exhibition, 11 December 2015-24 April 2016.
An analysis of Justin Barton and Mark Fisher's audio-essay 'On Vanishing Land' (2013), taking up ... more An analysis of Justin Barton and Mark Fisher's audio-essay 'On Vanishing Land' (2013), taking up the notion of the "eerie" in it and contrasting it to melancholy.
Originally delivered at 'Five Centuries of Melancholia' conference, University of Queensland Art Museum, 4 September 2014.
Catalogue entry for exhibition “The effect that is propagated is not from the communication of sp... more Catalogue entry for exhibition “The effect that is propagated is not from the communication of speech but from the displacement of discourse”, held at Neon Parc Gallery in Melbourne, June 24-August 13 2016
Essay on Melbourne artist Elizabeth Newman on the occasion of her exhibition at Neon Parc Gallery... more Essay on Melbourne artist Elizabeth Newman on the occasion of her exhibition at Neon Parc Gallery in June 2016.
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Papers by Rex Butler
Originally delivered at 'Five Centuries of Melancholia' conference, University of Queensland Art Museum, 4 September 2014.